[Resolved]  Air India / State Bank of India — wrong deduction of money

Address:

Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh

Dear Sir/Madam,
This is regarding the wrong deduction of an amount of Rs 18910 from my SB A/c [protected] held at SBI, INCS Visakhapatnam. I tried to book an airline ticket (Air India from Visakhapatnam to New Delhi for travel on 24 Oct 11, amount Rs 9455) using net banking on the 14 Oct 11. But in spite of repeated attempts, I did not get the high security password on my registered mobile phone to authorise the transaction. Finally I completed the transaction the third time using my debit card of the same account. But to my surprise, I later found out that the amount was deducted thrice from my bank account. I tried to contact the airline staff to check for the failed transactions. The Air India customer care initially expressed their inability to help as it was an online transaction, and only after repeated requests did they give me a Delhi based land-line number for internet banking solutions. The number which they provided,[protected] and[protected], was either engaged all the time or was not answered. Finally I got through after a lot of attempts, and I was informed that my case had been forwarded to their accounts section, after I mailed them my account statement showing the erroneous debits. This also didn't work as I did not receive any response from the accounts section. After a lot of e-mails and phone calls, I was informed by the accounts section of Air-India that they had not received any such money, and I was told to check with my bank account. To this I called-up the SBI toll-free number, but here also I was told to visit my parent branch to resolve the issue. Now I was presently in Dehradun and the parent branch was at Visakhapatnam, so I was unable to visit the branch. I tried to register an online complaint on the 10 Nov 11, and also tried using the "UNHAPPY" service of SBI. I did receive a call from SBI the next day, but they also asked me to submit an application at my home branch. Also, I haven't received any response on my online complaint, except the acknowledgement mail till date.
All this while, I have written a large number of emails both to the Airline authority and State Bank of India, but none has been able to give me a solution. My only point in all the correspondence was that the amount should not have been deducted without me authorising the transaction by entering the password. That was the whole point o[censored]sing a secure internet transaction. Its almost been a month since the erroneous transaction, and both the parties have just slept over the matter.
I thus request that the matter be taken up with the adequate authorities and the amount in question, along with the interest and compensation be returned. Also, I request that this case, if considered worthy, be covered on your show so that the people of the nation also come to know about the functioning of a NATIONAL BANK and a NATIONAL AIRCRAFT CARRIER.

Regards,

Gaurav Aggarwal
[protected]